Ousted New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson is the latest in a parade of powerful women who got the ax over issues of personal style. Abramson's problem, according to the newspaper that she led until her departure on Wednesday, was that she was "polarizing and mercurial" in the view of some employees. Failure is always more complicated than that. Particularly when it comes to women leaders. To get noticed, women have to lean in, as Sheryl Sandberg advises in her bestseller, but strong women often lean in too far for the comfort of the men and other women in their orbit. Research shows that a narrower band of acceptable behavior exists for women leaders. And for the women in this gallery, staying on top proved to be a balancing act too tricky to master.Brad Barket/Getty Images for Wired

Ousted New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson is the latest in a parade of powerful women who got the ax over iss